Is this the first time y'all are seeing Baloo's whole body since their redesign? It is!

Her Royal Highness Celeste, Princess of the Changeling Kingdom and Baroness to Fairview Manor
request the pleasure of the company of
Hullabaloo, Heir of Chaos
for an afternoon luncheon to be held at
The Canterlot Gardens
on Wednesday at 1 o’ clock


Hullabaloo, now in the center of the gardens, stared at the paper invitation with a frustrated glare. They had arrived early, hoping they had read the note properly. If not, Baloo was either here a week early or extremely late. With a small glimmer of magic, the invitation disappeared from their hoof while the draconequus sat down on the grass, not bothering to take a seat on one of the many benches provided.

Time had passed, and Baloo wasn’t sure how long they had been there. 30 minutes? And hour? Either way, the garden provided a quiet place to rest and stare at the greenery. A sundial sat on the other side of some shrubbery, and when Hullabaloo hovered to eye the time, it read around 1 o’ clock. Without another moment passing, a pink changeling exited through the palace doors into the gardens and headed straight for Baloo. Her posture showed confidence, as if she owed the very ground she stepped on.

“Hullabaloo, thank you so much for meeting me.” Celeste gave a polite smile, looking like she had praticed that grin over and over in the mirror. “I trust you had a fairly easy time traveling?”

“Well, yeah.” Baloo shrugged casually, giving the exact opposite vibe of her royal entrance. They stayed sitting, not bothering to get up for greetings. “Teleporting doesn’t take too much time, so I got here early.”

Celeste nodded, clearly already preparing her next words. “Of course, of course. I’m sure that’s quite convenient, hm?” Without waiting for a response, Celeste started waking past them and further into the garden. “Our luncheon table is this way, follow me.”

The draconequus slowly picked themself up off of the grass and stayed a few steps behind his host, rather confused on the whole situation. They had no idea why they were being invited to some lunch with a member of royalty, but their mother had convinced them that it would be polite to accept Celeste’s invitation anyway. The two passed some large trees and a handful of shrubs shaped like animals before entering a small, private section of the garden. The castle spires could be seen from their spot, but they seemed to be completely alone besides the palace that loomed around the two.

“I had the castle chef make a small 3-course lunch menu for us. I assumed nothing extremely elegant was necessary for an early meal. I also wrote to Miss Fluttershy asking about your favorite foods and diet, so I hope you enjoy what we’ve put out.”

It seemed that only the last sentence or so reached Hullabaloo, for they were lost in thought staring at the area around them. It all seemed so…fancy. Once Baloo finally started paying attention, they cleared their throat and nodded. “I’m sure whatever’s here will be fine, thanks.”

The two sat down to their meal, the draconequus fidgeting every so often in their seat. Even though Celeste had claimed the meal was nothing elegant, Baloo couldn’t believe her. She talked about how she had dismissed the garden staff for their luncheon, hoping that Baloo would feel more comfortable without anyone serving them as she levitated their food to them from a cart a few feet away. Baloo listened quietly as she spoke, and silently thanking the universe when she hovered a plate of cooked fish with a small salad and fruit to his setting at the table.

‘Jeez, it looks more like art than a meal…’ Baloo thought, unsure at first how to take the first bite. Were they supposed to eat like they did at home? The draconequus hardly chewed their food, much less hover it to their face instead of just shoving their muzzle into the plate.

Celeste, already levitating a fork and taking a bite of her own salad, paused when she noticed Baloo’s hesitation. She swallowed and gave a small smile, trying to assure her guest. “You can eat however you need to. No one will judge you here, certainly not me.”

With a small, nervous smile, Hullabaloo slowly lowered their head down to the plate and took a bite, looking away from her the entire time. Baloo wasn’t one for utensils to eat, unless they were his hooves or magic, and they assumed that Celeste already knew that. She seemed to be a step ahead every time. They ate mostly in silence, with Celeste occasionally making remarks on the weather or something casual enough for small talk. When their meal was done, Celeste stood up and Hullabaloo immediately knew that it was time for the business part of their meeting.

“Let’s go for a walk. Nothing better than stretching your legs after a meal.” Celeste said, already starting to walk off. It was clear she wasn’t asking, and Baloo hurried to walk next to her.

“So…what’s this all about?” Hullabaloo asked, preferring to cut to the chase rather than continuing to get such nice treatment without knowing why.

Celeste glanced over to him, still looking as confident as ever. “I had planned to bring up our business after a bit more conversation, but you want to get right to the point. I can appreciate your straight-forward nature.”

Baloo could feel her stalling, or perhaps just drawing the situation out. They stopped walking, letting Celeste take a few more steps forward before turning back to face them. “I just don’t know why I’m here. Am I in trouble or something?”

Celeste chuckled softly, as if the thought of them in trouble was amusing to her. “Not quite. I invited you today because I have a proposition for you that could better Equestria as a whole.” When Baloo simply responded with a raised brow, the changeling continued. “I have asked you here to formally offer an arranged marriage between you and I.”

Had Baloo asked her to get to business while they were eating, they might have done a spit take. They sputtered in shock, trying to make their own thoughts coherent. “A-A marriage?! We don’t even know each other!”

It didn’t seem a surprise anymore when Celeste looked unaffected by their confusion. In fact, she was still smiling as if everything was going smoothly. “Well, of course we don’t know each other yet. That would come with courting. A propose a diplomatic marriage between the two of us to show Equestria a long-lasting alliance between harmony and chaos. I am a member of royalty and you are the heir to your father’s title. By no means would we rush into this. The courting can last as long as you like, until you feel that we know each other well enough to be married. Obviously, I wouldn’t finish drafting the contract without your approval.”

“C-Contract?” Hullabaloo could feel their head spin. “You want to get married just cuz of our stations? I’m not even fancy like you! I wasn’t brought up in the same kind of life! You think you’d really be happy marrying someone just for an alliance?”

Celeste didn’t even hesitate. “Of course. I would do anything for our home. Don’t you feel the same way?”

“Well, y-yeah. But…” Baloo trailed off, not even sure of what to say at this point. They wanted to get straight to the point, and they now wondered if listening to her sales pitch would have eased them in slower.

“Hullabaloo, no one is asking you to make a decision right now. You can take as much time as you need, but I will need an answer. I think it would benefit both of us, our families, and Equestria. Will you at least think about it?” Celeste’s smile faded for a moment, as if she was worried she would fail.

Hullabaloo sighed and rubbed their head with a hoof. “I guess, as long as you don’t need an answer by tomorrow or anything… I’ll think about it.”

Celeste’s smile returned and she nodded her head, looking proud of herself. “I promise, you can take all the time you need. If you’d rather be alone right now or prefer to go home, I understand. There’s always plenty of work to be done on my end. Just…make sure to send me a letter if you have any questions, day or night, okay?”

They nodded back, still looking rather bamboozled by their situation. “You might be getting a lot of letters from me then. I feel like I could ask a million questions, but not right now. Right now I just need to go home and think.”

Without hesitation, the changeling raised up her hoof to shake theirs, perfectly content with Baloo leaving to think about what she had said. They shook and said their goodbyes, with Celeste walking back into the castle with a glance back to Hullabaloo as they started to teleport away.

‘What just happened?’ They thought, disappearing from the gardens and back to Ponyville, ready to tell their parents about everything the moment they got home.
~
Whaaaat? Marriage proposal? Are we actually getting into real plot stuff for Sugarverse? XD